Pietà

Unknown Bolognese, Italian

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16th century

Terracotta with traces of gesso and pigment

Overall: 11 1/2 × 16 in. (29.2 × 40.6 cm)

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Museum purchase with support from the Estate of Wallace D. Bradway, Class of 1947

2022.21

Geography

Place Made: Bologna, Italy, Europe

Period

1400-1600

Object Name

Sculpture

Research Area

Sculpture

On view

Label

Traces of pigment and gesso survive in the folds of garments and the rough surface of the base in this intimate Pietà—when the Virgin Mary mourned the death of her son Jesus Christ after his Crucifixion. Remnants of green appear on the ground near Christ’s outstretched foot and blue in the robe that twists around Mary’s waist. Rather than fully finished for display, this sculpture was likely a modello, a model that might be presented to a patron as proof of a final composition or used in a workshop to help with the completion of a full-scale sculpture.

From the 2024 exhibition Living with Sculpture: Presence and Power in Europe, 1400–1750, curated by Elizabeth Rice Mattison, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Academic Programming and Curator of European Art, and Ashley B. Offill, Curator of Collections

Exhibition History

Living with Sculpture: Presence and Power in Europe, 1400–1750, Citrin Family Gallery and Engles Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 23, 2024–March 22, 2025.

Provenance

Antoine Boccador, Paris, France; Gallarus Art Gallery, Katonah, New York; sold to present collection, 2022.

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